ILX TOP 50 FILMS OF 2000-2004 BALLOTS/VOTING - ends Jan. 3

I call "pacey, actiony, well-executed" BIGSCREEN TV

whatsamatta? didn't you LOVE kiki's delivery service?

also, guess what.

I could see a lot more foreign films through Netflix and DVDs, but I've finally broke down and admitted that I just don't like movies as much on a small screen. Even when I love something, being on my couch, with my little TV or computer, I get too many distractions. Nothing replaces a good cinema experience.

Most baffling use of "r*ckist" evah, or I'm just old.

Also foriegn films tend to play in the arthouse theaters, which are always small and uncomfortable with bad sound systems. thats no fun.

Short answer: Pauline Kael.

I really shouldn't bite here, but Pauline Kael loved and promoted tons of foreign films. What exactly are you getting at?

I dunno what arthouses are generally like outside NYC; I'm sure their dodgy budgets means technical problems, but if it's a challenging and worthy film, you put up with stuff. I saw the third LOTR perfectly projected with a rapt crowd at Lincoln Center and felt grouchy throughout.

Maybe early on, but by the late 70s she almost exclusively supported American "New Hollywood" shit that had felt the influence of post-war Euro cinema but, more importantly, the American filmmakers championed by la politique des auteurs. (This isn't to say that there weren't individual non-American films she supported, but she certainly covered less and less world cinema--this is position is still v. evident at The New Yorker).

I don't really think she soley deserves the blame for lack of interest (and lack of availability (in theaters and the press) is really the main problem) in world cinema, but much of it has to do with the kind of provincial attitudes she fostered.

I don't think the "majority of American critics" is a very good standard with which to judge someone's openness to world cinema.

I don't have a single work for you, I'll look through For Keeps later and pull quotes if you want, but her focus became very American-centric later in her career (and this is taken to its logical extreme by self-confessed Paulettes like David Denby).

Il Postino came out way after Kael stopped writing--you're talking about critics working now.
Kael didn't have to hunt anything down she was based in San Francisco and New York during the high-point of American awareness of world cinema.
Again, I'm not soley blaming Kael, my answer above was pithy, but I do think the attitude that Morbius was describing and the attitude that a film must be first-and-foremost "entertaining" owe a lot to her (even if her actual writing was occasionally a little more nuanced).

It's not merely the championing of American films, but the notion that once Americans started making use of New Wave devices, there was no longer any need to actually see New Wave films (and certainly no reason to pay attention to contemporary world cinema).

She was the most well-known American film critic writing!

And she reviewed plenty of foreign films! For Keeps is a selective look at her work, not a complete bibliography.

I know that, and I've read stuff of hers that's not in For Keeps, it's the just only one I still own.

I don't really like Kael at all and, as I have repeated, I'm not soley blaming her. I think much of this has to do with the Paulettes and what others took from Kael's writing--which was admittedly a little more nuanced. But I don't think it's unfair to associate her with an attitude that largely bears her impress.

Remember, the address for blurbs is ilxblurbs@modsvsrockers.net.

Spring Forward's only '99 screening was at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and it didn't get released on DVD until September 2002. It really made the festival rounds in the 2000s.

As for How's Your News, according to IMDB, the first screening of the film was actually in 2001 at the same festival. IMDB might have the date screwed up because the project was based on a TV series that began earlier.

Arguably:
Spring Forward (Gilroy, 2000)

Somewhat less arguably:
How's Your News? (Bradford, 2001)

HYN appears to be a screwup on IMDB's part, so votes for it would be OK. But anything that had a festival screening or anywhere, IMDB counts it as that year.

Addition:
How's Your News (Bradford, 2001)

1. Cast Away (Zemeckis, 2000)
2. Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, 2001)
3. About a Boy (Weitz, 2002)
4. The Village (Shyamalan, 2004)
5. How's Your News? (Bradford, 2001)
6. Los Angeles Plays Itself (Andersen, 2003)
7. The Yes Men (Ollman, Price, 2003)
8. Legally Blonde (Luketic, 2001)
9. White Diamond (Herzog, 2004)
10. School of Rock (Linklater, 2003)
11. Meet the Parents (Roach, 2000)
12. Best in Show (Guest, 2000)
13. Sideways (Payne, 2004)
14. Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)
15. Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)

Three least-favorite films:

Irreversible (Noe, 2002)
Monster's Ball (Forster, 2001)
Fat Girl (Breillat, 2001)

1. Cremaster 3 (Barney, 2002)
2. The Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr, 2000)
3. Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)
4. City Of God (Meirelles, Lund, 2002)
5. Belleville Rendezvous / Triplets Of Belleville (Chomet, 2003)
6. The Isle / Seom (Kim, 2000)
7. A Time For Drunken Horses (Ghobadi, 2000)
8. Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul, 2004)
9. Avalon (Oshii, 2001)
10. Songs from the Second Floor (Andersson, 2000)
11. Memories Of Murder (Bong, 2003)
12. Spider (Cronenberg, 2002)
13. Kung Fu Hustle (Chow, 2004)
14. Nobody Knows (Koreeda, 2004)
15. Little Otik (Svankmajer, 2000)

And the three shittiest films of the decade are :

Amelie (Jeunet, 2001)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Tarantino, 2003)
Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)

I'm sure there's way shittier, but why would I bother sitting through them when I could watch something good?

About Schmidt
Charlie's Angels
Moulin Rouge

1. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen, 2000)
2. In the Mood for Love (Wong, 2000)
3. Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World (Weir, 2003)
4. Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)
5. Kill Bill: Vol.2 (Tarantino, 2004)
6. Spellbound (Blitz, 2002)
7. Ghost World (Zwigoff, 2001)
8. The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001)
9. Sideways (Payne, 2004)
10. Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)
11. Bad Santa (Zwigoff, 2003)
12. Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
13. Together (Chen, 2002)
14. Napoleon Dynamite (Hess, 2004)
15. Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)

Worst (of the ones I've seen):
The Corporation (Abbott, Achbar, 2003)
The Hours (Daldry, 2002)
...there weren't any others I really disliked from this list

Hurrah!

Good job validating the box office bitches.

1) Together (Moodysson, 2001)
2) Mulholland Dr. (Lynch, 2001)
3) Monsters Inc. (Docter, Silverman, 2001)
4) Talk to Her / Hable con ella
5) Amandla! A Revolution In Four Part Harmony (Hirsch, 2002)
6) You Can Count on Me (Lonergan, 2000)
7) Dude, Where's My Car (Leiner, 2000)
8) The Man Who Wasn't There (Coen, 2001)
9) Waking Life (Linklater, 2001)
10)Shaolin Soccer (Chow, 2001)
11)The Corporation (Abbott, Achbar, 2004)
12)Bad Santa (Zwigoff, 2003)
13) Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
14) Scratch (Pray, 2001)
15)The Incredibles (Bird, 2004)

least favorite:
Amelie
El Crimen del padre Amaro
Lord Of The Rings: Return of The King